Warne's poker challenge ends in defeat

Shane Warne could finally be on his way to England to commentate on this summer’s Ashes for Sky Sports, after he was last night eliminated in the third round of the prestigious World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Shane Warne could finally be on his way to England to commentate on this summer’s Ashes for Sky Sports, after he was last night eliminated in the third round of the prestigious World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

He may, however, need a couple more days to recover from what was, by all accounts, a traumatic way to bomb out of an event that could have netted him up to US$10 million had he progressed all the way to the final table on July 15.

Having gone into the third round with a very healthy stack of 173,700 chips, and 24th in the overall standings, Warne suffered what is known as a “bad beat” and, according to pokernetwork.com, his challenge “collapsed quicker than the English batting order.”

“Warne flopped a flush only to see his opponent improve his set to a full house on the river,” reported the website, “and shortly after ran his pocket eights into an opponent’s pocket aces." And in cricketing terms, that is roughly as unlucky as being given out lbw off an inside edge. Twice in one match.

Andrew Miller is the former UK editor of ESPNcricinfo and now editor of The Cricketer magazine